Nicaragua Releases 100 Rebels Sandinistas Make Show Of Following Truce Pact

March 28, 1988|By United Press International

MANAGUA, NICARAGUA — The Nicaraguan government staged a ceremony Sunday to release 100 political prisoners under terms of a cease-fire agreement with the Contras, and President Daniel Ortega urged the United States to respect the pact.

The ceremony to release the political prisoners began at 1 p.m. outside the Zona Franca prison in Managua and continued into the late afternoon.

The release was part of gradual amnesty for all political prisoners called for in the 60-day cease-fire between Managua and the Contra rebels.

Most political prisoners are captured rebels and Contra sympathizers, or former members of the national guard, which ran roughshod over people during the rule of dictator Anastasio Somoza, overthrown by the 1979 revolution that led to the Sandinistas taking control of the government.

The government says there are more than 3,300 political prisoners in the country -- 1,837 of them former guardsmen ''and Somocistas,'' and another 1,523 captured ''counterrevolutionaries.'' Opposition groups and the Contras say there are 8,000 political prisoners in Nicaragua.

''The amnesty is the most difficult part of the accord to explain to the Nicaraguan people . . . because many people suffered greatly at the hands of the national guard and the Contras,'' Ortega told reporters Saturday. ''But what would they prefer: to liberate some prisoners or continue with the war and the deaths of more Nicaraguans?''

Ortega, on CBS' Face the Nation program Sunday, promised the prisoner release would go ahead as scheduled, and he urged the United States to ''respect'' the cease-fire accord as ''an independent decision against the policies of President Reagan taken by the government of Nicaragua and the Contras.''

Ortega also reminded Reagan of a promise to negotiate with the Nicaraguan government if it agreed to meet directly with the Contras.

Elliott Abrams, U.S. assistant secretary of state, told CBS, ''We don't need bilateral talks with the Sandinistas. We need to talk most of all about Soviet arms going into the region.''

The agreement to release the political prisoners Sunday was in the accord signed Wednesday by Defense Minister Humberto Ortega, the president's brother, and a Contra negotiating team.

The pact calls for a 60-day cease-fire during which negotiations will begin to end the 7-year civil war. It also allows Contra fighters and Nicaraguan exiles to return to Nicaragua without punishment.

Adolfo Calero, a leader of the Nicaraguan Resistance, the political arm of the Contras, told NBC that the agreement called for the first 100 political prisoners to be released on Palm Sunday ''given the religious nature of the Nicaraguan people.''

Half the remaining political prisioners will be released within the next two weeks and the others will be freed at a time not yet specified.

Ortega to CBS that not all political prisoners would not be released at once to ensure that the Sapoa pact was ''not some sort of trap.''

Also Sunday, half the U.S. Army soldiers ordered to Honduras on March 16 after a reported Nicaraguan incursion prepared to leave for home.

About 1,600 U.S. soldiers flew from Jamastran and Tamara to Palmerola Air Base, 35 miles northwest of Tegucigalpa, for flights home today.

Two other U.S. battalions still were in training Sunday. They were to fly to Palmerola today and head back to the United States on Tuesday.